Poor people paid for good behavior; good or bad?

Question

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070619/ap_o...

Have we come to the point in America where we have to pay people to do what is right?

I would find this offer insulting, myself.

For some, it may work as that leg up they may require . . . I just don't know. It almost fits the "teach a man to fish" mold, but seems like the program is swooping in to instill values that people should already have. BUT, the funding looks private, so I don't really object to that. . . .

Wondering what you guys think . . .

Sorry the link didn't take:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070619/ap_on_re_us/poverty_plan;_ylt=Ar2ELWIo31o_Na_FV3jWp.pvzwcF

Answer 1

I think it is degrading also but they will find plenty of people that will take the money.
Instilling values, I just don't know about that. Seems to me a person would have to care about themselves before they could learn to care about others or things.

This look similar to a program I heard about in our state years ago. It's goal was to teach people how to budget and pay their bills. Reward them with 1,400 dollars once they completed the class, in exchange they had to get off the HUD program and buy the house they were staying in for free, off the government. As you can imagine people took the class, took the money, got off HUD and soon later lost their home.

You know the ole saying, "you can lead a horse to water but...".

Go figure.

Answer 2

I didn't read it all, but I liked what I did read. Having been a poor person for the first half of my adult life, I can say that I have observed many poor people who make decisions based on ignorance of proper demeanor. However, one of the most debilitating thing about being poor is that the poor often have faulty values that do not function well in mainstream society. If you can train someone to be punctual so that they can hold down a job, this is a good thing, is it not? I have always been in favor of paying schoolchildren for attendance, homework, and completed assignments. That way, they would learn early in life that the correct behaviors bring rewards in the form of remuneration for their efforts to conform. This is what is wrong with America's school system. Children are not taught "workplace values", in that they spend 12 years learning all kinds of useless junk by rote memory, and very little that will actually help them be successful in today's competitive work world.

Most of the short answerers above have their heads shoved up their "should-world" instead of in the fresh air of the "is-world".

Answer 3

I don't think it is right, we are going the Roman way, and the Roman way led to destruction! Rome was a great empire for a long time, but they started doing a "ancient" type of social security, and went down, what are they today? Just a memory! The USA parallels Rome in so may ways, I believe it will end up just like Rome some day.
"And the poor were happy with bread and circuses."

Answer 4

First off, I have zero pride and will take money where I can get it as long as I'm not hurting other people. Still, being paid for good behavior would be extremely insulting. I don't think it's entirely a bad idea, because it helps people who are genuinely trying to make it in this country and want to get out of their current living situation. There are certain times and moments to offer charity, and a blanket 'give' like this is just ignorance. If the government wants to help, they should come up with a method that doesn't flaunt their superiority.

Answer 5

This is the perfect reason why socialism fails.

ANything the socialists try to do, to engineer results, is a dismal failure.

Leave the human spirit alone, it will do fine, the strongest will do better than the weakest but that is nature, that is the way is supposed to be.

Our tax law was supposed to alter our behavior, all it has done is suppress AMericans human desire to get ahead by stealing more of our money when we succeed.

McCarthy was correct. We must eradicate socialism in AMerica.

Answer 6

I find it kind of insulting because we should be good people for the good of it and not because we are getting paid! Money makes the world go round and money can even make a bad kid go right... Sorry, thats just how America works :( I wish it was different was well :)

Answer 7

Liberals are inept blunderers who, with self-deceived zeal, have self belief they are making the worldwide greater appropriate whilst in certainty they are ruining it. working example: there is now (owing to Libbys) a software to help unwed mothers circulate to varsity. Oh gee, looks in simple terms like one in all those constructive, comfortable-feely software does not it? permit's help those downtrodden unmarried mothers destroy the cycle of poverty. ..... nicely, a minimum of it is Liberal "thinking" on the subject. Conservatives know greater appropriate (subsequently, and continually). What grew to become into the result? hundreds of unmarried women interior the indoors city hear approximately this great con game, so as that they call up their boyfriend de-jour and say, "DeSean, this is your fortunate day. Throw away that container of condoms and permit's get busy!" So now Loquitia is knocked up, and he or she sees dollar indications. because of the fact NOW she is eligible for all that unfastened funds to circulate to varsity. yet even this tale does not end nicely. maximum of those women are decidedly unmotivated. After some months of juggling motherhood and going to classification, they simply drop out, or have such abysmal grades that they are no longer able to proceed bilking the taxpayer. specific, oh specific, why does the government motivate undesirable habit?

Answer 8

THIS WOULD WORK IN A TOKEN ECONOMY. Creat money that meens somethin to you and assign it a value. Use it only in you're group, co-op, token economy as you wish. You can use yourmoney for deed dones, chores finished, grades improvemnt....as reward. and they would spend it to be able to buy things like toys. food, and even freedom to play a game or go on a hike etc.

Answer 9

It's cheaper than what we are doing now, but I rather pay a little extra . The problem is that liberals make it harder to use the stick to get people to act properly. My feeling is that we're not punishing people enough for acting badly.

Answer 10

Got to help everyone, even those that cant for some reason, help themselves. Remember we are a rich nation that can spend billions on war to keep the world safe, we surely can afford to pay someone to do the right thing.